Chainsaw Grudge Match: Gas vs. Electric

We pit a gas engine chainsaw against a saw with a battery and motor in a test of all-around effectiveness.

Any woodcutter will tell you that there are few machines that offer the power-to-weight ratio and productivity of a traditional gas engine chainsaw. So how could an electric hope to compare in a straight-up test?

If you look at the full range of woodcutting performance—not simply power but also noise, speed, and ease of use‚Äìthen the test becomes more interesting. So we staged a face-off between two remarkable little saws, both from Stihl. In one corner, the company's cordless MSA 200 C-BQ ($660, with battery and charger), a 36-volt saw powered by a 4.5-AH Li-Ion battery. In the other, the company's MS 150 C-E ($500), a small but mighty saw powered by a 23.6-cc gas engine. The saws are about the same weight (approximately 10 to 11 lbs.) and length (26-1/2 inches). And both were equipped with thin-kerf, reduced-kickback chain. So which Stihl would emerge the all-around champion?

Test 1: Quiet Cutting

I gave my friends Ted and Carol Abt the choice of using a gas or electric saw to remove two 20-foot Arbor Vitae from their Pennsylvania backyard. There was no contest. The Abts opted for the electric MSA 200 C-BQ and would not even consider the gas-engine saw. In 20 minutes they felled both trees and sawed them into 2-ft. sections for curbside removal by the town.

Ted is a mechanic who owns and operates a successful business. But he had never used a chainsaw, and was amazed by the battery-powered Stihl. "It's intuitive, quiet, and it's clean," he says. "There's no smoke and almost no noise." Carol made a few cuts with the Stihl, then looked around her property. "Let's cut down some more," she said.

Next, I took the electric saw to a public golf course, Makefield Highlands in Yardley, Pa. Grounds Superintendent Mark Peterson directed me to a hanging limb on a cherry tree near the course's maintenance facility. With a few deft slices, I removed the limb and cut it into firewood lengths. Nearby, a solitary golfer at a putting green didn't even look up as I went about my work.

My final test with the electric saw was to see what kind of firewood I could make with it. With a fresh battery, I went after a fallen black birch tree and made 55 pieces of stove-length wood that ranged from 2 to 13 inches in diameter. It was quiet and pleasant work—more like recreation than the noisy, hard, and sweaty business of cutting firewood or felling trees for lumber.

Decision: When it comes to pleasant, quiet cutting in the suburbs or doing landscape maintenance around institutions such as schools, churches, and hospitals or around recreational areas, such as play grounds, golf courses and nature preserves, there's simply no substitute for a quiet cordless electric saw, especially one as remarkably efficient as Stihl's MSA 200 C-BQ. This saw will keep the peace while helping you deal with trees.

Test 2: Cutting Firewood

Next came the firewood test, and for that we sought out a mature stand of hardwood trees that had been devastated by Hurricane Sandy. Standing chest deep in brush, I began slicing away vines and small branches to get at a tangled mass of ash, black birch, maple and cherry trees. Within minutes, it was clear this was gas-engine territory. The amount of preparatory cutting needed to get at the material big enough for firewood would needlessly drain the electric Stihl's battery while producing little, if any, fuel wood.

Within minutes of starting the gas-powered MS 150C, I had a path cleared and got busy producing stove wood. Fueled up, the saw weighs less than 10 lbs, and its light weight makes it incredibly valuable for repeated cuts held at shoulder height. This saw is no match for machines with engines twice its size, but the tradeoff in power is partially made up for by its ease of use. You can move more quickly and safely using a small and nimble saw because you're not tired from handling and carrying the machine.

Decision: When it comes to firewood, the goal is to produce the most useable pieces in the least amount of tie. It's that simple. If you make a racket and a stink, so be it—at least by being as efficient as possible you can reduce that unpleasantness. In the time it took me to make 55 pieces of stove wood with the electric saw, I used the gas saw to make more than twice that amount of wood cutting in conditions that were far more difficult.

Bottom Line: There's no contest here. If you're going to be trimming around your property, then the electric takes the take. But not for serious wood cutting in the woods. Unless you enjoy quiet time with a quiet little saw and don't mind the extra time investment, this work will always belong to a chainsaw powered by a gas engine.

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